1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to harvesting and cutting machines, and more particularly pertains to new and improved lawn mower blades which are particularly designed for throwing snow and for mulching and discharging leaves from a lawm mower.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The use of specially designed lawn mower blades with conventional lawn mowers for the purpose of performing operations other than cutting grass is well known in the prior art. A good example of such a prior art modified lawm mower blade is to be found in U.S. Pat. No. 3,589,112, which issued to L. Frohmader on June 29, 1971. More specifically, this patent discloses a thatcher attachment for a rotary type lawm mower wherein such attachment comprises a pair of generally V-shaped spring wire rake members which are carried at the same radius on opposite ends of an elongated bar substantially similar to a conventional lawm mower blade. The rake members operate to cut weeds and leaves into small pieces prior to their discharge from the lawn mower.
While the basic concept of attaching other types of structures to a lawm mower blade is illustrated by the above-described patent, it can be appreciated that there are no presently available prior art devices which facilitate the use of a conventional lawm mower as a snow thrower or an efficient leaf mulcher. As such, there would appear to be a continuing need for modified lawn mower blade structures which could accomplish such snow throwing and leaf mulching operations, and the present invention substantially addresses this need.